Here at obo. Agency, our clients’ projects are always handled with full focus and maximum effort. Aligning with our core values, we complete our clients’ tasks on time, every time. Our multifaceted team of marketing professionals diligently work week after week to exceed our clients’ expectations and provide best-in-class digital marketing services.
How do we do it? We use Scrum.
What Is Scrum?
Scrum is a project management framework that emphasizes teamwork, accountability, and iterative progress towards a set goal. As a subset of the Agile methodology, project requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.
We’ve adapted the Scrum model to meet the demands of a marketing agency, and we currently operate entirely under this method. By breaking down large projects into manageable, bite-size tasks, our customers see progress every week.
Tasks are completed in defined segments of time called sprints. In other applications, the length of a sprint varies depending on the needs of the company and its clients. Our sprints at obo. Agency are weekly; we don’t like to keep our clients waiting. By organizing tasks into short work periods, we’re able to produce results faster and more accurately.
How Does Scrum Work?
It all begins with the client. We start the process by gathering information on upcoming requests, tasks, and projects. Our team hosts a sprint planning meeting before the new week begins. Here, we reflect on improvements, prioritize client tasks, and split large projects into smaller pieces, all with the intention of consistently delivering excellent results for our clients.
With all client needs and planning submitted by Wednesday, our weekly sprint execution begins on Thursdays. On day one, tasks are delegated to the proper team members and progress is measured using YouTrack, an issue tracking and task management tool.
While YouTrack works for us, there are multiple tools available, each with its own benefits. Take a look at Asana, Wrike, and Trello if you’re interested in implementing task management for the benefit of your own organization.
Our effective point-based system allows each team member to work to their fullest potential. Each task is assigned a number of “points” based on the scoped level of difficulty. This allows the team to efficiently gauge the upcoming sprint and plan accordingly. With each team member allotted a fixed number of achievable points per sprint, the team ensures the consistent delivery of high-quality work, completed in a timely manner.
To measure progress throughout the sprint, we participate in daily stand-up meetings. These huddles allow our team members the opportunity to vocalize potential obstacles that would interfere with the successful completion of assigned tasks. We also use this time to review which tasks have been completed, as well as strategize for the upcoming day of hard work. These morning meetings help the entire team identify those who may need additional support and flag any tasks that need more attention.
At the end of a busy week, we revel in the glory of our completed projects during our sprint review. This time is used to evaluate our team’s productivity and discuss any challenges anticipated for upcoming sprints. Account managers then deliver the perfected tasks to our clients for approval.
With another successful sprint in the books, we rinse and repeat.
No process is perfect, but the beauty of this method is the opportunity to constantly reevaluate our approach, thus preventing future mishaps or discrepancies. Our team takes great pride in collaboratively improving efficiency, productivity, and communication week after week. With regular customer interactions, we’re also able to incorporate invaluable feedback to determine if we’ve met expectations and discern how we can go above and beyond in the future.
Why Use Scrum?
Efficiency. Breaking down assignments into small, achievable goals ensures that each element is handled with total focus and excellence. When great components come together, the overall product is nothing short of outstanding.
Timeliness. We respect our clients’ time. Using Scrum allows our team to accurately measure the number of sprints necessary to complete each project. We don’t keep our clients waiting: They’ll have updates and completed tasks at the end of every single week.
Organization. With an ever-growing client base and a multitude of requests flooding in week after week, we simply can’t afford to wing it—Scrum keeps our team on task. It’s a foolproof, comprehensive way to manage time, talent, and resources. Large or small, no task is left behind.
Contact us today to discuss how our unique, results-focused project management methodology can be applied to tackle your business challenges.
